Why were no bankers put in prison after the financial crisis of 2008? Why do CEOs seem to commit wrongdoing with impunity? The problem goes beyond banks deemed "too big to fail" to almost every large corporation in America - to pharmaceutical companies and auto manufacturers and beyond.
The Chickenshit Club - an inside reference to prosecutors too scared of failure and too daunted by legal impediments to do their jobs - explains why.

5 out of 5 stars

very thorough!

By
john
on
08-11-17

Secrecy World

Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite

By:
Jake Bernstein

Narrated by:
Jake Bernstein

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
56

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
52

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
51

Secrecy World offers a disturbing and sobering view of how the world really works and raises crucial questions about financial and legal institutions we may once have trusted. This audiobook discusses the fragile scaffolding upholding any tax haven, the flexible laws of banking, and the radiating impact of an international financial scandal.

5 out of 5 stars

Fulfills its promise admirably

By
Philo
on
11-26-17

A History of the United States in Five Crashes

Stock Market Meltdowns That Defined a Nation

By:
Scott Nations

Narrated by:
Christopher Grove

Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
210

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
182

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
183

In this absorbing, smart, and accessible blend of economic and cultural history in the vein of the works of Michael Lewis and Andrew Ross Sorkin, a financial executive and CNBC contributor examines the five most significant stock market crashes in the United States over the past century, revealing how they have defined the nation today.

4 out of 5 stars

A solid telling of crucial history

By
Philo
on
06-17-17

Collusion

Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win

By:
Luke Harding

Narrated by:
Ralph Lister

Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
716

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
646

Story

5 out of 5 stars
643

Russia expert Luke Harding lays out the most in-depth look to date at the Trump campaign's dealings with Russia. Beginning with a meeting with Christopher Steele, the man behind the shattering dossier that first brought the allegations to light, Harding probes the histories of key Russian and American players with striking clarity and insight. Harding exposes the disquieting details of the Trump-Russia story - a saga so huge it involves international espionage, offshore banks, sketchy real estate deals, mobsters, money laundering, disappeared dissidents, and more.

5 out of 5 stars

a must read for all Americans

By
Julie L Sparrow
on
12-24-17

Conspiracy

Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue

By:
Ryan Holiday

Narrated by:
Ryan Holiday

Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
190

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
177

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
177

In 2007, a short blogpost by Gawker Media outed PayPal founder and billionaire investor Peter Thiel as gay. Thiel's sexuality had been known to close friends and family, but he didn't consider himself a public figure, and believed the information was private. This post would be the casus belli for a meticulously plotted conspiracy that would end nearly a decade later with a $140 million dollar judgment against Gawker and its bankruptcy. Only later would the world learn that Gawker's demise was not incidental - it had been masterminded by Thiel.

3 out of 5 stars

good story, bad narration

By
Robert Levin
on
03-10-18

The Spider Network

The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

By:
David Enrich

Narrated by:
Mike Chamberlain

Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
289

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
259

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
258

In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world's largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor - the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide - was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it to suit their trading portfolios.

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Expose on a Scam and its Naive Ringleader

By
Andres Pedraza
on
03-22-17

The Chickenshit Club

Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives

By:
Jesse Eisinger

Narrated by:
Jonathan Todd Ross

Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
148

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
128

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
126

Why were no bankers put in prison after the financial crisis of 2008? Why do CEOs seem to commit wrongdoing with impunity? The problem goes beyond banks deemed "too big to fail" to almost every large corporation in America - to pharmaceutical companies and auto manufacturers and beyond.
The Chickenshit Club - an inside reference to prosecutors too scared of failure and too daunted by legal impediments to do their jobs - explains why.

5 out of 5 stars

very thorough!

By
john
on
08-11-17

Secrecy World

Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite

By:
Jake Bernstein

Narrated by:
Jake Bernstein

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
56

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
52

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
51

Secrecy World offers a disturbing and sobering view of how the world really works and raises crucial questions about financial and legal institutions we may once have trusted. This audiobook discusses the fragile scaffolding upholding any tax haven, the flexible laws of banking, and the radiating impact of an international financial scandal.

5 out of 5 stars

Fulfills its promise admirably

By
Philo
on
11-26-17

A History of the United States in Five Crashes

Stock Market Meltdowns That Defined a Nation

By:
Scott Nations

Narrated by:
Christopher Grove

Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
210

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
182

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
183

In this absorbing, smart, and accessible blend of economic and cultural history in the vein of the works of Michael Lewis and Andrew Ross Sorkin, a financial executive and CNBC contributor examines the five most significant stock market crashes in the United States over the past century, revealing how they have defined the nation today.

4 out of 5 stars

A solid telling of crucial history

By
Philo
on
06-17-17

Collusion

Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win

By:
Luke Harding

Narrated by:
Ralph Lister

Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
716

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
646

Story

5 out of 5 stars
643

Russia expert Luke Harding lays out the most in-depth look to date at the Trump campaign's dealings with Russia. Beginning with a meeting with Christopher Steele, the man behind the shattering dossier that first brought the allegations to light, Harding probes the histories of key Russian and American players with striking clarity and insight. Harding exposes the disquieting details of the Trump-Russia story - a saga so huge it involves international espionage, offshore banks, sketchy real estate deals, mobsters, money laundering, disappeared dissidents, and more.

5 out of 5 stars

a must read for all Americans

By
Julie L Sparrow
on
12-24-17

Conspiracy

Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue

By:
Ryan Holiday

Narrated by:
Ryan Holiday

Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
190

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
177

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
177

In 2007, a short blogpost by Gawker Media outed PayPal founder and billionaire investor Peter Thiel as gay. Thiel's sexuality had been known to close friends and family, but he didn't consider himself a public figure, and believed the information was private. This post would be the casus belli for a meticulously plotted conspiracy that would end nearly a decade later with a $140 million dollar judgment against Gawker and its bankruptcy. Only later would the world learn that Gawker's demise was not incidental - it had been masterminded by Thiel.

3 out of 5 stars

good story, bad narration

By
Robert Levin
on
03-10-18

The Spider Network

The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

By:
David Enrich

Narrated by:
Mike Chamberlain

Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
289

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
259

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
258

In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world's largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor - the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide - was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it to suit their trading portfolios.

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Expose on a Scam and its Naive Ringleader

By
Andres Pedraza
on
03-22-17

The Doomsday Machine

By:
Daniel Ellsberg

Narrated by:
Steven Cooper

Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
280

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
247

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
245

The Doomsday Machine is Ellsberg's hair-raising insider's account of the most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization, whose legacy - and renewal under the Obama administration - threatens the very survival of humanity. It is scarcely possible to estimate the true dangers of our present nuclear policies without penetrating the secret realities of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, when Ellsberg had high-level access to them.

3 out of 5 stars

Important and alarming story, machine-like performance

By
Christau
on
12-13-17

Gorbachev

His Life and Times

By:
William Taubman

Narrated by:
Henry Strozier

Length: 32 hrs and 45 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
82

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
75

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
75

When Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, the USSR was one of the world's two superpowers. By 1989, his liberal policies of perestroika and glasnost had permanently transformed Soviet Communism and had made enemies of radicals on the right and left. By 1990 he, more than anyone else, had ended the Cold War, and in 1991, after barely escaping from a coup attempt, he unintentionally presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union he had tried to save.

5 out of 5 stars

The Man Who Changed The Course Of History

By
Jean
on
12-30-17

The Evangelicals

The Struggle to Shape America

By:
Frances FitzGerald

Narrated by:
Jacques Roy

Length: 25 hrs and 50 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
80

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
71

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
68

This groundbreaking book from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Frances FitzGerald is the first to tell the powerful, dramatic story of the Evangelical movement in America - from the Puritan era to the 2016 presidential election. Evangelicals have, in many ways, defined the nation. They have shaped our culture and our politics. Frances FitzGerald's narrative of this distinctively American movement is a major work of history, piecing together the centuries-long story for the first time.

5 out of 5 stars

Great book

By
Gary LA
on
12-27-17

Destined for War

Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?

By:
Graham Allison

Narrated by:
Richard Ferrone

Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
226

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
205

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
204

War with China is much more likely than anyone thinks. When Athens went to war with Sparta some 2,500 years ago, the Greek historian Thucydides identified one simple cause: A rising power threatened to displace a ruling one. As the eminent Harvard scholar Graham Allison explains, in the past 500 years, great powers have found themselves in "Thucydides's Trap" 16 times. In 12 of the 16, the results have been catastrophic.

5 out of 5 stars

Balances, Counter-Balances and Traps

By
Joyce U. Olewe
on
10-09-17

The Panama Papers

How the World's Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money

By:
Frederik Obermaier,
Bastian Obermayer

Narrated by:
Simon Shepherd

Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
193

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
180

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
179

Late one evening investigative journalist Bastian Obermayer receives an anonymous message offering him access to secret data. Through encrypted channels he then receives documents showing a mysterious bank transfer for $500 million in gold. This is just the beginning. Obermayer and fellow Süddeutsche Zeitung journalist Frederik Obermaier find themselves immersed in a secret world where complex networks of shell companies help to hide people who don't want to be found.

3 out of 5 stars

Don't know about you but I returned it...

By
Amy
on
11-16-17

Democracy in Chains

The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America

By:
Nancy MacLean

Narrated by:
Bernadette Dunne

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
373

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
336

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
335

Behind today's headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did.

5 out of 5 stars

A must read if you believe in democracy

By
H. L. Nelson
on
10-11-17

Devil's Bargain

Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising

By:
Joshua Green

Narrated by:
Fred Sanders

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,390

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,227

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,224

From the reporter who was there at the very beginning comes the revealing inside story of the partnership between Steve Bannon and Donald Trump - the key to understanding the rise of the alt-right, the fall of Hillary Clinton, and the hidden forces that drove the greatest upset in American political history.

4 out of 5 stars

Bannon elects Trump

By
Charles P. Oconnor
on
09-08-17

Red Famine

Stalin's War on Ukraine

By:
Anne Applebaum

Narrated by:
Suzanne Toren

Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
124

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
121

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
120

In 1929 Stalin launched his policy of agricultural collectivization - in effect a second Russian Revolution - which forced millions of peasants off their land and onto collective farms. The result was a catastrophic famine, the most lethal in European history. At least five million people died between 1931 and 1933 in the USSR. But instead of sending relief, the Soviet state made use of the catastrophe to rid itself of a political problem.

5 out of 5 stars

Still ever so relevant

By
Mrs.
on
12-14-17

Fantasyland

How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History

By:
Kurt Andersen

Narrated by:
Kurt Andersen

Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,164

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,037

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,029

A razor-sharp thinker offers a new understanding of our post-truth world and explains the American instinct to believe in make-believe, from the Pilgrims to P. T. Barnum to Disneyland to zealots of every stripe...to Donald Trump. In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen demonstrates that what's happening in our country today - this strange, post-factual, "fake news" moment we're all living through - is not something entirely new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character and path.

5 out of 5 stars

Great book, but...

By
Synthpulse
on
11-15-17

Dream Hoarders

How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It

By:
Richard V. Reeves

Narrated by:
Richard V. Reeves

Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
67

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
59

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
56

As Reeves shows, the growing separation between the upper middle class and everyone else can be seen in family structure, neighborhoods, attitudes, and lifestyle. Those at the top of the income ladder are becoming more effective at passing on their status to their children, reducing overall social mobility. The result is not just an economic divide but a fracturing of American society along class lines. Upper-middle-class children become upper-middle-class adults.

5 out of 5 stars

Truth!

By
Jessica Lucero
on
01-11-18

The Future Is History

How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

By:
Masha Gessen

Narrated by:
Masha Gessen

Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
236

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
219

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
221

Hailed for her "fearless indictment of the most powerful man in Russia" (
TheWall Street Journal), award-winning journalist Masha Gessen is unparalleled in her understanding of the events and forces that have wracked her native country in recent times. In
The Future Is History, she follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each came of age with unprecedented expectations, some as the children and grandchildren of the very architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own.

5 out of 5 stars

The author is an international treasure

By
ThreeGems
on
10-16-17

Dereliction of Duty

By:
H. R. McMaster

Narrated by:
H. R. McMaster

Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins

Abridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
227

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
188

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
191

Dereliction of Duty is a stunning analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out and disastrous war in Southeast Asia. Fully and convincingly researched, based on transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it is the only book that fully re-creates what happened and why.

2 out of 5 stars

Abridged Version Anyone

By
Laurel
on
01-09-18

Editorial Reviews

This audiobook is a fascinating addition to Jesse Eisinger's and Jake Bernstein's Pulitzer prize-winning series on the 2008 financial crisis. Eisinger, a journalist, and Bernstein, a trader and future's analyst, are an unstoppable duo as they expose the truth behind the catastrophe. They illustrate just how the country's bankers pushed the economy into ruin and were all too happy to blame the public for the mess. Gary Dikeo's emphatic performance is perfect for this exposé. His deliberate pacing makes the complex financial analyses palatable.

Publisher's Summary

In the months before the 2008 financial meltdown, bankers and hedge funds perverted the market to keep their lavish bonuses flowing. Their machinations made the collapse much worse. This Pulitzer Prize-winning series reveals how they did it.

Sub Prime Mortgage Crisis For Dummies?

Perhaps I've already listened to too many of the Wall Street crash books but this short look at the crisis comes off as simplistic and repetitive. The narrator reads in something close a monotone; as if he was reading to an econ 101 college study group. If you're interested try something more along the lines of The Big Short or Reckless Endangerment.